we're a sorry bunch

[slaying]

Who: The Scooby Gang - slaying, univalent, slayersidekick, steadfastest, consultmybooks & likevegeta
What: Meeting & potluck.
When: Late evening.
Where: Spike's apartment, community building two.
Summary: There is nothing so perfectly traditional to the Sunnydale gang as holding important meetings over various kinds of food. I hope someone was on donut duty.
Rating: PGish. Just in case.

Comments

[consultmybooks]

Giles had grabbed one of the free chairs, and was watching Buffy carefully as she spoke. This was the first time since his first night here that he'd had the chance to get a halfway decent look at her. Since then, he suspected that she'd been rather desperately trying to distract him, and he'd more or less played along.

But this was serious. And, more than all of them, she knew what the hell was going on here. He was fine with deferring to her judgment on the matters of this world for that reason, but her acceptance of the situation worried him. Xander and Willow, at least, had seemed optimistic about their chances of escape, and even over the last week Giles had grown to depend on that.

"So, it's a case of 'the enemy of my enemy, then'?" he asked cautiously, once she'd finished. "Why are the Third Party so interested in us? It's not as though we actually have much of an impact on the goings-on in this world, or so it seems."

[slaying]

It was hard to do anything but accept her place here, in Luceti. A year and four months is a long time, and people who Buffy now trusted had been here a lot longer. But she would be lying if she ever claimed that the sudden arrival of the core gang with the welcome addition of her right hand man in Italy did not awaken some of those less accepting parts of her. Loving Kirk had been one thing that had made her complacent and happy to stay. Making friends? Gaining allies, in the absence of her usual crew? These things had settled her. Unlike Giles, Willow and Xander...she did not know of a Sunnydale she could ever return to.

"When I toe-to-toe'd it with their General, he claimed they were wanting to free us." But the face she was making clearly suggested that it was anything but freedom on the line. "Their version of it, of course, involved permanent death." Her voice dropped. This was a sensitive subject for them all. "See, in Luceti?--" Buffy stopped. She eyed Xander across the room and she walked closed to Giles

[consultmybooks]

Well, that is big news to Giles. He'd gotten used to thinking of Buffy as the sole exception to death - twice over, it seemed - but if the rules really were different here...that was something to think about. He raised his eyebrows, and then went for his usual coping mechanism - cleaning his glasses.

"So. When they say 'free', it's in the metaphorical sense, rather than the literal sense? Sound to me like religious fanatics.

I'd ask just how this was possible, by the way, but I suspect we'd be here all night if there was an answer at all."

[slaying]

"Giles, meet big-fat-question number one." Buffy sighed and leaned on the arm of Giles' chair. "They invaded the barrier to try and sell us all the farm. But I got the one-up on them and they retreated. Then, bam. Instant house-hold name."

It didn't go quite like that. Truthfully, Buffy had kept her exploits in the invasion to herself for the better part of the following months. It wasn't until the town meeting that she had gotten mouthy with what she had done. It had been a way to prove herself to the rest of the town. And to Cloud, of course. Who was gone. So many people were gone.

"As for the revival thing? It could be magic, sure. Or it could be tech. Who knows."

[consultmybooks]

He looks up at her and says what he knows he can't be the only one thinking. "If they invade again, you know you're probably going to be the biggest target, then."

On the one hand, he knows Buffy can take care of herself. This last week has done more than enough to prove that to him. On the other..."They'll probably target you specifically."

And trying to be the hero one time too many had gotten her killed before, after all.

[slaying]

Buffy shrugged. "I headed a team during the last draft--see, the Organization takes the fight to them, now. Press-ganging villagers into going. I mentioned it, but...by all rights, the General should be back and kicking too. But he wasn't out there." She was clearly troubled over this. Buffy had wanted to meet the man again, on the field. There were unanswered questions. And--she closed her fist over the locket--she had something of his, still.

"There were some weird battlefield-specific stuff, but according to Albert? He's...a guy. He was in both drafts--according to him, the opposition was pretty much the same both times."

[consultmybooks]

"I've met Albert." Albert knew Buffy. Raine knew Buffy. Okita knew Buffy, although apparently only in passing. He had already become resigned to the fact that everyone seemed to know Buffy. It made is easier to get to know people.

"So the General's stayed out of things, then? That's...more a cause for concern than relief. More time not spent getting killed is more time he can spend planning. Where are they, anyway? Don't the Organization know?"

[slaying]

"I think they're a group that splintered off of theirs."

She tilted her head. Met Albert? Oh, but she would have loved to be a fly on the wall in that conversation. "He's been here a long time. Albert, I mean. He helped co-ordinate things during the invasion. Those shoulders have definitely got a head on them."

[consultmybooks]

"Could mean either attrition tactics, or that group was working on its own time. I'm inclined to think the former, but...war isn't something I can claim much knowledge of. And attrition is no good when they can't actually kill you." He shrugs. "I have nothing, in other words."

And, while he's immensely proud that she's come this far as a leader, it does concern him that Buffy's had to do these things. Learn about war. But that's just him being old and overprotective, and Giles knows it will take a while for him to get over that.

[slaying]

"The battles, when they send us out, are about reclaiming land. Key positions, I guess." She didn't seem too interested by it. She had only ever been so keen on signing up on the off-chance she would meet him again. Buffy wanted to ask him who the woman was, in the locket. What was her name? Where did she come from? Why was she so important? It frightened her that one individual could have so much pull over her motivations. It reminded her of--.

"But the drafts are why we started a training school."

[consultmybooks]

"Again, that was probably a good idea. And if you need any help, just ask."

And then Giles goes for a donut. He's got way more questions, but it's time to open the floor to the other Scoobies. Buffy's comment about "getting reacquainted" was probably going to wind up being the biggest challenge of the night.